Can humanity live in space?
Habitability & Enviromental Factors
This division in setup in 2 branches: Environment and Habitat. The link for them has very vague and sketchy information. Here is what I think they should be looking at:
- Radiation: how to deal with solar and cosmic radiation, how to treat it, and what 40-50 year exposure will do.
- Food supplies: Can it be grown in space, can it be considered safe, does it require the special conditions of terrestrial soil or can a hydroponics farm really work.
- SAD syndrome. This occurs on the extreme latitudes and causes massive depression from a lack of sunlight. If I send someone to Mars and the Alaskan twilight that is likely to be the best they get, will I need to send a chemist, a lab, and 10 tons of antidepressants?
- Liquids and biological agents. Pure water is useless after a while. We all drink in bacteria and viruses that are both helpful and harmful to life, but when we move out of the terra-sphere we know, the biosphere we've always lived in, will we find liquids and biological agents that enable us to maintain life, or will we be forever shipping out new supplies and shipping back depleted ones because of the aformentioned factors?
I hesitate to consider more as I will likely hit a nerve with them or try to put too much onto their plate. After all, NASA is comprised of many divisions and hordes outside contracts as much as congress will allow in an effort to enable us to continue exploring as nature (or, if you agree with me, God) designed.
For more possibilities, see NASA and the ESA (European Space Agency) for what they are working on and what their visions are. Perhaps I will remember to review the civillian sector space race again next Saturday. Signing out for this week, I want you to keep your head in the sky and your feet on the ground, unless you're an astronaut.
Ugana,
